Modeling the human prothrombinase complex components

Thrombin generation is the culminating stage of the blood coagulation process. Thrombin is obtained from prothrombin (the substrate) in a reaction catalyzed by the prothrombinase complex (the enzyme). The prothrombinase complex is composed of factor Xa (the enzyme), factor Va (the cofactor) associated in the presence of calcium ions on a negatively charged cell membrane. Factor Xa, alone, can activate prothrombin to thrombin; however, the rate of conversion is not physiologically relevant for survival. Incorporation of factor Va into prothrombinase accelerates the rate of prothrombinase activity by 300,000-fold, and provides the physiological pathway of thrombin generation. The long-term goal of the current proposal is to provide the necessary support for the advancing of studies to design potential drug candidates that may be used to avoid development of deep venous thrombosis in high-risk patients. The short-term goals of the present proposal are to (1) to propose a model of a mixed asymmetric phospholipid bilayer, (2) expand the incomplete model of human coagulation factor Va and study its interaction with the phospholipid bilayer, (3) to create a homology model of prothrombin (4) to study the dynamics of interaction between prothrombin and the phospholipid bilayer.